page_title: William Dar
section_title: Profile
hierarchical_section_title: William Dar / Profile
caption_attribution_description: English: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte administers the oath to newly appointed Agriculture Acting Secretary William Dar during a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace on August 5, 2019.
context_page_description: William Dollente Dar is a Filipino horticulturist and public servant who is the 45th Secretary of Agriculture of the Philippines. He was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte on August 5, 2019 to replace Emmanuel Piñol. Dar held the same position under President Joseph Estrada from 1998 to 1999. He is also a former Director General of ICRISAT.
context_section_description: Dar is a citizen of the Philippines particularly in the town of Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur where he was born, raised and educated. A horticulturist, he received his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education and Master of Science in Agronomy degrees from the then Mountain State Agricultural College (MSAC), now known as Benguet State University (BSU), and Ph. D in Horticulture degree from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. After serving on the faculty of the Benguet State University in the northern Philippines, he became the first director of the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) in 1988. This was a period when the Philippines started to invest much in building a national system of advanced agricultural research institutes, such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice.
  William Dar was designated the executive director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) and served on the governing boards of international research bodies such as the IRRI and CIMMYT and at ICRISAT. He also served for a brief while as Acting Secretary of Agriculture and as Presidential Adviser on Rural Development during the Presidency of Joseph Estrada. He was selected as Director General of ICRISAT in the year 1999. He has continued ever since in that position. He has written the book "Feeding the forgotten poor". Dr William Dar was conferred with MS Swaminathan Award for leadership in agriculture on 24 June 2013.
  On August 5, 2019, Dar was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to replace Emmanuel Piñol as the Secretary of the Philippine Department of Agriculture.
caption: Dar taking his oath of office as Secretary of Agriculture on August 2019
exif: {"Image Copyright": "toto lozano"}